The Brunt of the Brokenness of Our Healthcare System
Our founder and CEO, Dr. Myron Glick sat down with journalist Eve Shapiro to discuss why our healthcare system is not working for any of us–except for maybe those who profit off of it!
When asked what primary care in Buffalo looks like, Dr. Glick mentioned the great and growing need we see in our community. He said, “At Jericho, we probably have a waiting list of 1,000 patients. We are constantly pressed to take care of the need. We’re always getting requests for folks to access our system. Our challenge is to find excellent primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants just to be able to meet the need and to be able to grow to meet the need.”
In addressing why primary care physicians across the country are stressed out, Dr. Glick pointed to the healthcare system itself:
In Buffalo and across the country, we in primary care bear the brunt of the brokenness of our healthcare system. It’s not possible to really understand the stress on primary healthcare if you don’t understand the brokenness of how we pay for healthcare and have access to healthcare, instead of having single payer national healthcare. We have hundreds of health insurance companies; we have Medicaid and Medicare; and we have folks who don’t have insurance at all. The stress of finding enough doctors to meet the need and then figuring out a way to make it work financially given the brokenness of the healthcare system—and trying to be advocates for our patients so they can navigate that system—is a lot of stress on healthcare systems like Jericho and individual providers like doctors.
But, not every country struggles to care for their citizens like we do: “The idea that in this country it’s okay to try to make as much money as you can on healthcare… That’s a uniquely American solution and it’s failed spectacularly.”
Read the whole interview: THE-BRUNT-OF-THE-BROKENNESS-OF-OUR-HEALTHCARE-SYSTEM-.pdf
